August 17, 2011

Recall elections are "a stinging defeat for the Democrats and unions not only in Wisconsin, but across the nation," sez Wis-blargher O. Robinson.

There were nine recall elections. Democrats won five of them. Republicans failed at unseating all three Democrats they challenged, and Democrats succeeded at unseating two Republicans. That's a defeat?

The recall election results have all but destroyed any chance of a successful recall effort against Scott Walker next year. ... It's clear the air has come out of the Democratic tires in Wisconsin.

The Republican base is fired up, but they are being ill-served by the RPW mandarins, who seem still not to have digested how things are moving and are playing bad defense.

The DPW and their base are working better together. Not perfectly, but better. The base feels empowered and with good reason. Just like with the Senate recalls, the Walker recall will come from the ground up. The DPW has said they want to wait a year, as if you can bank the enthusiasm and momentum. "You're at the top, time to stop!" Not going to happen.

WISGOP base can't be that fired up because their candidate in Senate District 12, where they were supposed to have a shot, averaged 10 percentage points less in the same wards than Prosser managed in April, and turnout was up yesterday considerably compared to April. That's Dem GOTV, is what that is.

Yes indeed. They turned out, but we turned out more. Having participated and seen this first hand, there is a growing body of citizens in this state who are mobilizing themselves and actually enjoying the process. "Ah, nothing to do today, let's head down to Kenosha for GOTV".

The R base is worked up, but the strategies they have been given have not been effective and they are not particularly well-organized - depending on Koch and his ilk didn't cut it in the 12th. I think that is a big part of the bluster - they are losing and know it.

Close to half a million people voted in these nine races, with about 51% casting their votes for Democrats and 49% casting their votes for Republicans. There was less than a 7,000-vote difference between the combined vote totals for the two parties, with Democrats winning five races and Republicans winning four, . . .

These contests were fought on mostly GOP-friendly turf. The nine districts combined (six held by Republicans, three by Democrats) gave Republican Scott Walker 56% of the two-party vote in 2010, about three points higher than his statewide total, reflecting their overall GOP tilt. Only one of the nine was more Democratic than the state as whole based on the last governor’s race (the 32nd district held until last week by Republican Dan Kapanke).